Amidst the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh entering the campaign mode for next year’s Assembly elections, the party’s national president J.P. Nadda has hinted that it is in no mood for a change of guard in the State and that Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan will be the face of the party in 2023.
Responding to a question on whether the 2023 elections would be fought under the leadership of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan-Vishnu Dutt Sharma (State BJP President), Mr. Nadda said “everything goes in that very direction”.
The BJP president was addressing a press conference at the party’s State headquarters on Wednesday, the first day of his two-day tour of the State with both Mr. Chouhan and Mr. Sharma sitting with him. This is Mr. Nadda’s first visit to Bhopal after taking over the reins of the party in January 2020. His visit is being described by many leaders as the formal beginning of the election campaign for the BJP in the State.
Drawing a botanical analogy, Mr. Nadda said that the leadership was akin to a plant and frequent questions around it “were like uprooting it repeatedly to check if it was firmly planted”.
“For the 2023 elections, the parliamentary board will decide the question of leadership but under Shivraj ji’s leadership, the government is doing a good job,” Mr. Nadda further said.
The statement comes at a time when there have been reports of differences between Mr. Chouhan and some of his Cabinet and party colleagues and also speculation over Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia assuming a bigger role in State politics following his move to an official bungalow in Bhopal in May.
Earlier, Mr. Nadda also hailed the State government for its development works and its performance in central schemes, adding that under BJP rule, States like Madhya Pradesh had uplifted the living standards of the people and shed the BIMARU– a popular acronym used for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in the last few decades–tag. He highlighted schemes like Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana and the Jal Jeevan Mission where Madhya Pradesh has been on the first and the second position respectively over the past two years.
Presenting a slew of statistics on the government’s achievements on many social and economic indicators, Mr. Nadda claimed that the Congress government that had ruled the State for a couple of years had stopped the welfare schemes and focused on a divisive agenda. “The Congress is synonymous with corruption and commission,” he said.
No tickets to kin of party leaders
Responding to a question on nepotism in the BJP, Mr. Nadda said that the party will refrain from giving tickets to family members of its MLAs or MPs for all upcoming elections – from the local bodies elections scheduled in a few days to Assembly elections next year and even beyond.
"At the time of the byelection, many Madhya Pradesh leaders had said that not giving tickets to the sons of leaders would cause problems. The State President and the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had said that if the aspiring family members were denied tickets, there could be trouble but we said we would bear adverse consequences but won’t compromise on our principles,” Mr. Nadda said, citing similar examples from other States as well.
